


Storm Front

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Learning Normal, Finding Home [13]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Multi, accidental natural disasters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 14:19:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1146990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something... isn't right at Camp Half-Blood.<br/>And in this case, that means a pair of very angry, hurt 17-year-olds have accidentally caused a very small hurricane. (Again.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storm Front

**Author's Note:**

> So for now we're skipping over Playing Heroes  
> To a year and a half later when there's some trouble in paradise.  
> Uh oh.  
> (Seriously, though, guys, thanks for sticking around with me through this series. I know that there's been sort of a lull and also some less than stellar writing going on lately SO THANKS MANY AND PLENTY AND PLEASE CONTINUE TO STICK AROUND I swear I'll fix and finish Playing Heroes later on.)

Bobby could hear the shouting, sort of, from halfway across Camp.

Okay, it wasn't so much the shouting as the  _wind_  and the  _thunder_ and the  _waves_. They were very crashy, very loud, very terrifying to the smaller Campers, and  _very definitely_ caused by a pair of very angry, unstable demigods.

The storm raged around the arena, and the arena alone.

A personal hurricane, the likes of which hadn't been seen in seven years at least.

Bobby ignored the storm, ignored the crack of lightning and the pouring rain, and burst into the arena – the eye of the storm – with half a mind to start one himself.

“What the  _ever loving FUCK_  are you two doing?”

Marina and Ellis froze, midway through punching the stuffing out of each other. Their weapons had been dropped and forgotten, probably ages ago, given the state of the local weather. Ellis had a growing bruise on his jaw and a pretty impressive black eye (both on the right side, adding up to the impression that the entire right side of his face was just one big bruise), plus a bloody lip. Marina had a set of scratch marks across her left cheek, apparently from Ellis's fingernails. Marina's right hand was caught up in Ellis's shirt, with her left drawn back to throw another punch. Ellis, for his part, looked like he was about to kick Marina's legs out from under her.

“He was -”

“She said that I -”

“- and then he -”

“- she doesn't  _listen -”_

“ - he doesn't understand!”

“ - takes me for granted -”

“Oh, I take  _you_  for granted?”

Ellis opened his mouth to retort but -

“You two need to _calm the fuck down_  or separate and cool off, because  _YOU ARE SCARING THE PANTS OFF OF EVERYBODY WHO WASN’T HERE WHEN DELLA DIED,”_ snapped Bobby.

“What?” the 17-year-olds replied in perfect unison, so caught off guard by the mention of their former friend that their grip on each other loosened as they turned to face Bobby.

“Or haven't you noticed?” Bobby continued, gesturing to the sky. “You've whipped up quite a storm out there, you idiots. I don't know what's gotten into you and, trust me, I really don't want to, but you either need to snap out of it or separate. Now.”

Marina picked up her sword and water bottle and stomped out of the arena, and the further away from Ellis she got, the more the storm subsided.

Once she was gone, Bobby turned on Ellis. “What the hell, man?”

“What, you didn't think we never fought, did you?” Ellis said, still angry, picking up his own weapon from the ground.

“You've never fought like this,” Bobby said. “Not with fists and swords and  _blood_  and screaming.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “You're usually pretty good at keeping your spats away from everyone else. But now I'm pretty sure half of New York knows you two are fighting. What's gotten into you?”

“She started it.”

“Of  _course_  she did.” Bobby sighed. “But you continued it.”

–

“Georgie, can I borrow the fountain for a moment?”

Georgie and her little brother, Aaron, scrambled off of their respective beds. “Yeah, we'll just – get out of here!” Georgie replied.

“Yeah!” agreed Aaron, “See you later!”

The children of Poseidon ran out of the cabin as fast as their legs would carry them.

Marina dropped to her knees next to the fountain by the back wall of the cabin. She tossed a coin into the spray, whispering, “Fleecy, please, show me Nico di Angelo. The – uh – the aquarium office, probably.”

After a moment, Nico's face appeared in the water. “Hey, kiddo, is everything okay?”

Marina shook her head. “I wanna go home.”

“What? Why? What happened?” asked Nico. “What happened to your  _face_?”

“I'm – I – My -” Marina stammered. “Ellis -”

“Ellis? Is he alright? Is everything okay? Should I call Jason and Piper?”

“N- no, don't,” replied Marina. Her voice was weak, her hands shook. “I, uh – we – that is, he – no, he's fine.”

“Then what's wrong? Rina, baby, you can't just leave Camp for no reason,” Nico said. “I can tell something's up, why not just tell me?”

“We – we fought,” admitted Marina in barely a whisper. “Badly. It was messy. Small hurricane.”

“Small  _what_?”

“Hurricane.”

“Okay,” replied Nico. “I'll take that. I'll call Chiron, then swing by and pick you up. And then we're going to Mom's office, and you are going to tell us  _everything_. Okay?”

“Okay.”

–

“A small _what_?”

“Hurricane, she said. Like after Dell died, do you remember?”

“Oh my  _gods_. Did she tell you what happened?”

“No, I'm heading over there in a few minutes, and I told her we'd head straight over to you after.”

“I'll clear my schedule for the afternoon.”

“Thanks, Annie, see you soon. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

–

“What was the fight about, honey?” Annabeth asked.

“I – uh – nothing, everything, I dunno,” said Marina. “You know us, we – we don't – we don't  _do_  this.”

“No relationship is perfect,” Nico said gently. “Surely there have been incidents before?”

“Nothing like this.” Marina wouldn't look at either of them, instead focusing on her own hands. She'd long ago developed a tendency to rub at the base of her fingers like she was twisting a ring around them, only never in her entire life had she been one for wearing rings. It had always sort of perplexed Annabeth, but in this moment it was rather telling. She was fussing with a nonexistent ring on the fourth finger of her left hand. “We've never – our whole lives we've been compensating for each other's little shortcomings, y'know? Making up for the places where we don't fit right. I thought we were okay.” Her breath caught. “I thought we were okay!”

Nico looked at Annabeth, looking panicked, nervous. Over Marina's head, he mouthed  _what are we supposed to do?_

Annabeth frowned.  _I don't know._

–

Maya Rodriguez crashed into the Halfling Cabin with a fiery expression on her face that made the younglings run for cover.

“ _Ellis. Grace,_ ” she said, in a voice so deadly calm that had Ellis been in any sane place, he'd have been ducking for cover, too. “You have fifteen seconds to start explaining why my advanced archery class was almost crushed by a tree that had been hit by lightning and why the beach was shut down due to  _unsafe weather_  at CAMP MAGICALLY WEATHER-RESISTANT BORDERS.”

“Short version? We  _exploded_ ,” Ellis replied dully.

“Like three more words of explanation would be nice,” said Maya.

“Marina and me.”

“Exploded, like, how?”

“Well, you know how we don't really fight?”

“Yeah, 'course. You're kind of inhuman that way. I've never seen a more eerily in-sync couple in my  _life.”_

“We broke. Just sort of... snapped.” He paused. “And we're not a couple.”

“Yes you are, you  _totally_  are. Ever wondered why everybody at Camp's terrified to date you? And at school, your record is what? Shut up,” Maya corrected. “But, I mean, what happened? How?”

“Do you remember what happened with Everett from Apollo Cabin?”

“That quiet kid who went all –  _oh_.” She winced. “That's a pretty impressive kind of bottling up, there. Have you guys just made a habit of ignoring all of your problems, then? Because if so, I thought that was a healthier relationship than that, wow.”

Ellis shook his head. “No, we're usually pretty good about working through things, you know? At least, I thought we did. I thought we were okay. But things were off this morning, we were out of sync.”

“And then you caused a hurricane,” finished Maya.

“And then we caused a hurricane,” Ellis agreed. “It was an accident, though. Honestly, we didn't even notice.”

“You didn't notice last time, either,” Maya reminded him. “That's the only other time you two have ever lost control like that, right? Unless you caused an earthquake in San Francisco that I didn't hear about.”

Ellis nodded, silent.

“What set you off, then?”

“Mari's in a bad mood, I didn't sleep well, who knows? Today felt wrong from the moment we went down to train.”

–

“I think you two just need a break,” Annabeth said. “You've been spending a lot of time attached at the hip, but it's possible that you've changed more than you thought during the year. You might not fit together quite the way you used to.”

“No, no don't say that, Mama,” replied Marina. She couldn't sit still. She kept fussing with the beads on her necklace, picking at the loose threads on her Camp shirt, rubbing at her wrists and fingers. She looked so small, so shaky and nervous, that she hardly looked 17 at all. But maybe that was just Annabeth looking at her heartbroken daughter and seeing the little girl she used to be. “My whole  _life's_  tangled up with him, don't say we might not stick together forever. Today was just a bad day.”

“Really bad,” muttered Nico.

Annabeth shot him a look. “ _Nico_.” He winced. She turned her full attention back to their daughter, pulling her close and running her hands through her hair. “We'll keep you home this week, how's that? And then we'll see how things are once you've had a break and a rest.”

Marina nodded, sniffling. “Yeah, okay. That sounds good.”

Annabeth pressed a kiss to Marina's temple, then looked up at Nico.  _Call Percy_ , she mouthed. Nico nodded and quietly got up from the couch and slipped out of the room.

–

“They _what?_ ”

“The phrasing used was 'caused a minor natural disaster' from Chiron and 'accidentally started a small hurricane' from Marina.”

“But, I mean, they've never done that  _before_. How did this happen?”

“Don't you remember, Perce? They  _have_. Do you remember what happened when Della Watson died? Rina and El were maybe ten, and they'd never lost anybody before. Emotions were running high and the weather around Camp went haywire the whole time they were working on the shroud.”

“And you're saying that's what happened now? What  _happened_?”

“All we can get out of Rina is that they fought. Badly, I'd guess, since when I picked her up she was bruised and bloody.”

“Hold up, are you saying that Ellis -”

“No, the impression Bobby gave me was that Ellis was pretty beat up, too. Don't worry, I don't think El has it in him to hurt Rina out of the blue.”

“Good. Should I come home? I'm sure I could figure something out -”

“No, no, stay. You promised Rey two weeks out west. If you really feel like you need to do something, talk to Jase and Piper. See if El's given them anything more than we've got.”

“Okay. Well, call me if you want me home. I'm sure if Mr Runs-a-flippin'-airline Grace flew with me, You Know Who wouldn't zap me out of the sky.”

“We'll keep that in mind. I've got to go now, I think the girls want to do a men-are-stupid night in, and I'm expected to make the ice cream run.”

Percy laughed. “You do that. And if you get tired of insulting our gender slash trying to figure out what caused the kids to go all -” he waved his hands vaguely to indicate some unknown adjective, “just call. We're not doing much tonight.”

“I'll be sure to keep you in the loop. Talk to the Graces in the morning?”

“Yeah. Love you, Nic.”

“Love you, too, Perce.”

“Give my love to the girls.”

“Of course. 'Bye.”


End file.
